Posts

ah, the allure of the chanel woman. it's not merely about beauty- although that always helps- but about the combination of elegance and independence that has become associated with the fashion house's larger-than-life founder. filtered through the marketing hive mind for fall 2012, that equates to a cosmetic collection that is seasonally appropriate without the sultry drama of a lot of autumnal offerings. cool and muted, it might almost seem a little too soft, if it weren't guided by the deft hand of chanel.

the fall collection has been out since roughly january in the united states as far as i can tell. chanel are probably the earliest to market of anyone, which may mean that they capture some early sales, but it also means that by the time the season rolls around, the offering can seem a bit like old news. fortunately in canada, they seem to have some level of respect for the seasons, so we've only started to see autumn 2012 in the last few weeks.

UPDATED!! i'm happy to report that i got a very nice message from ellis faas cosmetics, offering to replace my fallen soldier and- more exciting- indicating that they are working on perfecting their pens and making them better than ever. so with that renewed sense of confidence... i'm ready to explore the world of ellis.

there's something undeniable sexy about ellis faas distinctive silver pen applicators. they're so ultra-modern looking, so slim and tapered and elegant. despite the fact that they're in a price range that would make even a guerlain connoisseur blush, they just call to you, particularly if you're a beauty "maven" who's seen everything in a tube or pan and longs for something a little different, a reinvention of the colour wheel.
i'm lucky, in that the spiffy new sephora location in downtown montreal is one of the only ones to actually carry ellis faas products. the collection is available through sephora on line everywhere, b…

as some of you may have noticed, i have a fascination for dreams. sometimes, i record my dreams here, other times, i just record them and keep them for myself, because i know that explaining them directly would kind of ruin them. a lot of the time, i forget to write them down because i'm sure they'll stick with me, even though i know that my memory isn't as good as i believe it is. further complicating things is that i take certain medication that actually makes it much more difficult for me to remember my dreams, which is a serious bummer, because i like to take inspiration from my dreams for what i write. cut me off from that and i'm really not that creative at all.

but last night really takes the cake. i was having a dream that featured a lot of characters from "dexter". that's not in the least surprising, because dom and i have been watching previous seasons before we dive into the newly-released season 6. it's actually surprising that i haven…

i woke up with a cough this morning. this isn't a completely unheard of thing, since i have a mild form of asthma, but this one sounded worse than usual. i woke dom up with my horrific noises, which i don't feel bad about since he couldn't sleep last night and woke me up watching some sort of kung fu zombie cannibal thing, because that's his way of dealing with insomnia. [i draw cartoons.]

he made the appropriate sort of sympathetic sounds, although i can't really say they took the form of words, so he might have been telling me to get bent for all i know. in fact, the very first thing i'm absolutely certain he said was "you know there's a whooping cough epidemic in quebec right now?"

well no, sunshine, i didn't know that, but thanks for sharing that tidbit that is now going to ruin the day of everyone i know, because every time anyone asks me if i have a cold or allergies, i'm going to respond by telling them that there's a whooping …

this one was written around the same time as the previously posted "fountain of you", which i mention because despite the content being fairly different, i find that there's a similarity of cadence between the two. i also think that both gain something from being spoken, although if you're reading this from a mobile device in public, changes are the only thing you'll gain from speaking them out loud is weird stares. but you're welcome to try. i'd consider it an honour. and no, it's not supposed to be called "untitled". sometimes, you just need to make up a word. Unentitled Written in skin Story of what Of what happened What didn’t happen here? The outline of a body Of work A story that exists in the
frame Choked into asphalt Unspoken of in these ears Ever. More. Time becomes Becomes us all We become weak In its grip Become lost under our own
bodies Become thick with history Our old friends polished up
new again Those stale old chestnuts Coughed up like hairball…

i have determined that the greatest achievement of technology is the photo app. i have a bunch and am always interested in more, because they can become addictive.

i already like taking photos and this just adds that much more fun. strangely, i haven't yet succumbed to instagram, but here are a few examples of how i've amused myself [mostly on the bus and metro] thus far.

normally, the process of taking down the garbage is only exciting in a bad way. like the time that a bag of cat litter had a leak so there was a trail of pee-soaked sand leading from the garage to our door and i had to sweep basically the entire building because i couldn't exactly claim that someone else had planted a stream of dirty cat litter to frame me. that is really as exciting as garbage day gets in this house.

except today.

because today i took down the garbage and was confronted with something so strange and glorious that i bounded back up four flights of stairs to grab my phone so that it could be committed to the ages. honestly, my first instinct was to grab it and take it back upstairs with me, but since i growl at dom every time he brings a new blu-ray into our overstuffed home, i felt like i might have a hard time justifying the necessity of a bristol board school project about a non-existent religion based on lemons and chuck norris. although really, now that i type…

it occurred to me this week, as i was attaching my sticky little paws to a couple of items from guerlain's newly launched fall collection that i hadn't ever taken the time to review any of the guerlain eye shadow quads in my possession. bad blogger! bad!

because when guerlain launched their new permanent collection of four-colour palettes last fall, the world got just that little bit prettier on average. sure, there are still horrible things going on. but if you're an aesthete like me, sometimes it helps to just close your eyes and imagine the sumptuous, buttery shades of one of these magnificent little boxes. it's not going to solve the world's problems, but focusing on the pretty might help things seem a little better in the short term.

i was lucky enough to be able to pick up the "les fumes" palette from a makeup fan who had accidentally ended up with two. this is an example of a situation where fate just forces something on you because it's meant…

There is no ‘I’ in your
world Star centre of the universe Holding others in orbit
around you Transfixed and inclined
towards your glow. Rogue comet, me. Ashy piece of space
shrapnel On my own course And unable to resist your
lure, Bright sky angel Crooked monkey men crouch
down Paint a simian mask On your brilliant image Adore you and worship you As a god A father A familiar Wishing themselves in you Not I. I spin through and out Momentary celestial
distraction You do not see, Rock-dead inside out I could never impose my
image On your countenance But would draw you slowly Into me Fill myself with your fire Take everything from you That is you Snuff you out Incinerate myself And disperse that starry
magic A little for everyone who
can see Who can raise their ugly
hulks And grasp at it.

i'm retroactively declaring this week to be national irony week. i've spent much of the week feeling like i've been run over by a truck- or wishing that i would be- because despite being so exhausted that i think i've lost about 60% of my cerebral function, i've been unable to sleep. monday got things kicked off with a patented "kate migraine" that involved waking up too wobbly to move for the most part and mostly blind in one eye. that more or less set the tone for the week, which was kind of off-balance. i'm hoping that corrects itself in the week[s] to come.

there were, however, a few things that made it worth getting out of bed this week and here they are...

if i were a better blogger, i'd probably review these individually and give each the attention it deserves, but i'm an impatient person and kind of a lazy blogger and i really want to get these done before i put it off any longer.

i'd actually intended to post a review of "world's greatest dad" months ago, but other things kept distracting me [damned things]. now that i've seen all three of bobcat's recent films,i figured that i'd better get around to writing a review before it leaves my mind forever. which things are more and more wont to do.

first, a word about the auteur, bobcat goldthwait. if you've heard of him at all, it's probably because of his wacky 80s-comedy antics, particularly in the "police academy" movies, in which case, you might be pretty surprised to find out that he's actually an incredibly smart, articulate, politically astute stand-up comedian, writer and director in real life. you could be forgiven for t…

i was originally going to title this post "stop the madness", but that is such a ridiculously non-specific phrase in our times that i felt the need to explain a little more exactly what madness needed to be stopped.

obviously, since i write a lot about cosmetics and skin care and have comments about aesthetics in general a fair amount, i care about appearances. i don't consider that an especially vain thing, either, because i happen to think that taking pride in your appearance and appreciating things you find beautiful are underrated. there's a whole argument to be made that they're devalued precisely because they are perceived as feminine, but i'm not really in a position to make that philosophical argument, mostly because the position that i'm in is curled up against a wall growling and hissing at anything that i think might be coming close to my lady bits.

why, you might ask? because people are encouraging me to do weird shit to my vagina.

i remember the first time i saw "blue velvet". it was one of those experiences that stays with you, particularly in my case since it was an introduction to the world of david lynch. i was left altered, like i'd passed through an invisible barrier and couldn't go back and ever since, i've been fascinated with the world of films that simply bear the term "lynchian", now a catch-all for pictures that use the eerie, the unexpected, the bizarre and the disturbing. i got obsessed with "twin peaks", rushed to the theatre to see "wild at heart" [despite the fact that i have never liked either nicholas cage or laura dern] and have even put myself through some of his directorial low points, because, even when he's off, there's usually something, a picture, an image, a look he gets from one of his actors, that will inspire me.

when i originally saw "mulholland drive", i was at a point where i'd grown a little disenchanted.…

i got a different sort of assignment today at work, to go and be a photographer at an event for which we were a sponsor. it was a charity bike ride for cancer research, it's something that the company apparently does every year. it wasn't a challenging assignment. i just had to go there and take pictures of what was going on as the cyclists arrived and the organisers gave speeches and presented a big cheque. the most challenging aspect of the whole event was actually that it was outside and they were forecasting rain for the day.

since i knew i didn't want to be wrangling both a camera and an umbrella, i had the clever idea to don a jaunty cap to keep water off my head and out of my eyes. like so:

i knew it wouldn't help in the event of a downpour, but it would certainly offer some protection against intermittent showers.

and when i got there, i noticed that several people seemed to have had the same idea. i mean, what further proof is needed that it was a good idea t…

i have a love-hate relationship with courier companies. i love how they can sometimes bend time and get things to the opposite side of the globe for me so that they arrive a couple of hours before they were sent. i love how you fill out a form and then you can watch your package move around the world through their web tracking service. i especially love fed ex, because their air shipment reports are real time. so when i sign for a package and the driver logs the signature, i usually have an email telling me that my package was delivered by the time i get back to my desk. i'm aware of how nerdy it is to get a kick out of that and i'm ok with it.

but i hate courier companies when something goes wrong. because when something goes wrong, you realise that courier companies are like autistic patients with a very specific set of skills. they can do their work with a skill and efficiency few could muster, but put one bump in the road [possibly literally] and it's like you threw t…

people often ask me "how much coffee is too much?" sometimes, i growl and punch them, because i clearly haven't had enough coffee. when i have had enough coffee, i tell them that the answer is complicated, because how much coffee is enough varies greatly from person to person. the best way to determine whether or not you have had too much coffee or just enough is to ask yourself a few key questions:

1. have you had coffee today?
yes. proceed to question #2
no. have coffee.

2.b.possible reasons for headache
- caffeine deprived. have coffee.
- hungover. have coffee. if badly hungover, add plenty of milk. try not to wallow in regret and shame all day.
- lack of sleep. have coffee. you'll need it to get through your day.
- unknown. you might think better if you poured yourself a nice cup of coffee.